Just to say I fully agree with Cal.
And I for one will IMMEDIATELY pm him, or one of the moderators if I spot any personal attack that could potentially damage a trader's reputation -whether or not I agree with it!Having said that I don't want us to fight shy of discussing general policies, or being afraid of being critical of organisations like the NMTF. That's what debate is about.

I dont often use the PM system but its ideal for sorting personell gripes / complaints with traders cos if someone reads something detrimental about someones goods and puts up a posting ,that one error on the part of the trader ,which can be easily resolved just blows out of proportion with others with no connection joining in,it causes unnessasary grief ! ,so what have i missed chaps ?
Oh by the way Pete,your incecense dont half stink,and Gerry Burrows,well his stuff is a bit ropey

Also a warning about being over-reliant on pm's (and for that matter emails)
About a week ago a fellow trader pm'd me on a very important issue, which included a fair amount of well deserved criticism of me. At least he thought he had, but for some reason the message was never sent, and therefore never recieved. He also apparently sent an email which again either I didn't receive or got lost in the mountain of spam I get daily.
When we later met up he must have thought me extremely rude and unsympathetic because I appeared to be totally oblivious to everything that he had written.
MORAL: Never EVER assume your pm/email/text has been received !!!!

I am not a Trader ,But I would just like to say that I find all traders very helpful and without them ,it would be very hard to obtain equipment .I started reenactment back in the late 60s .There were very few Traders about then ,and most equipment was made by yourself or others .Its was to say the least poorly made as we didn't all have the ability to turn out quality goods .But that was long ago and things have moved on since then . I enjoy walking round the Traders and finding something that will fit my purpose .You are all doing a super job and after all said and done ,its down to the customer to ensure that what he or she is buying is up to the job .Don't blame the trader if its not ,My advice is if you are unsure of what to buy is to allways take someone along with you who knows whats right and whats not .Traders are doing there best to supply reenactors needs ,Its up to the buyer to ensure what there buying is right .Keep up the good work all you Traders ,without your effort and the supplying of goods we as reenactors would be at a loss.